DURHAM — The University of New Hampshire men’s hockey team earned plenty of style points in the first half of the season.

Now it’s time to win some games.

“We need to play better the second half and not just look good,” UNH coach Dick Umile said. “We need to win hockey games. We felt we played a lot better than our record says, but that’s our record.”

UNH has scored first in 13 of its 19 games and has outscored opponents by a 59-45 margin, but finds itself at .500 both overall record (9-9-1) and in Hockey East (5-5) as it enters the Florida College Classic tournament vs. No. 13/15 Cornell (N.Y.) Saturday night in Estero, Fla.

By the time the puck drops Saturday night, the Wildcats will have had three weeks to stew over a 2-1 loss to Boston College before a sellout crowd at the Whittemore Center on Dec. 7.

“It’s tough when you’re last game’s a loss,” said junior defenseman Trevor van Riemsdyk. “That’s fresh in your mind and you think about it over break, especially that second game. But we’re past that now. Everyone’s excited. We need a big second half.”

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TREVOR VAN RIEMSDYK

Though UNH will be focused on getting the second half of the season started out right, you won’t hear any griping from players about having to travel to the Sunshine State in late December.

“You can’t complain about that, getting a little good weather,” senior defenseman Eric Knodel said with a laugh. “Especially with the snow we got up here. It’s nice to come back to Durham (from break) and head to some warm weather.”

Though the general consensus in the UNH locker room after the loss to BC was that the Wildcats played well in the weekend series (both losses), the team is eager to get back on the ice and improve on their .500 record.

“We’ve been playing pretty good hockey,” Knodel said. “There have been very few games where we didn’t play well. There’s a lot of games we lost where we were probably the better (team). Having a good game on a Friday night and carrying that over to Saturday is going to be huge for us.”

On Sunday UNH’s opponent will be either Maine or Princeton (N.J.), depending on the outcome of Saturday’s games. The weekend tournament games are the first of seven non-conference contests before the Wildcats return to Hockey East play at home against Maine on Jan. 24. (Should UNH face Maine on Saturday, it will not be counted in the conference standings).

“Last year what carried us (into) the tournament was how strong our non-conference wins were,” van Riemsdyk said. “We know those will be crucial when it comes to NCAA tournament time.”

Senior forward Nick Sorkin leads UNH with 11 goals, with van Riemsdyk leading the way in assists with 15. Goalie Casey DeSmith has played well, starting in 14 games for the Wildcats with a .922 save percentage and a 2.13 goals-against average.

To say the Wildcats have been streaky this season would be an understatement. UNH had won eight of 10 before dropping the two games vs. BC. Before that, UNH had lost four straight and were winless in six straight.

“We played .500 in the first half and we need to play better than that in the second,” Umile said. “Last season we got off to a good first half and played .500 the second half. We need to reverse that whole thing. We’re looking forward to that opportunity.”

A key for UNH in the second half will be to find ways to win close games. UNH has lost four games by a single goal and twice in overtime.

“Every game’s a big one now,” van Riemsdyk said. “It was a slower start to the year than we wanted, but we think we’re playing pretty well. If we just work at it, get those bounces, we’ll have a good (second) half.”